Thursday, September 13, 2007

It’s September and I’m ready. Ready for autumn and the New Year. This time of the year has always had way more a new year feel than that thing that happens in January. My birthday falls in this month so it actually is the start of a new year for me (as always, woolen gifts that need assembling are welcome). But besides that, I seem to have that school/education/academic thing in my blood or psyche or where ever these things lie that tell me it’s time to start anew.

It’s the time of the year when I feel the need to organize…organize the house, the files, my closets, my self, my life. Some years I’ve tried to organize David too – but I have to say the sock drawer is a lot more receptive.

Maybe I learned September organizing from mom. All those years of watching her prepare for a new school year. When one knows that from August to September your daily list of responsibilities will grow from (no small job of) two daughters, and one Italian-reared husband * to 8 classes of chemistry, 2 biology classes, 15 remedial math students, the math/science department, the student council, the junior class council, the creation and implementation of school-wide reform program, AND the rearing of 2 daughters, AND that Italian-reared husband, well, you learn to take a little time to organize yourself.

* only non-Italian wives of Italian husbands can appreciate the scope of this

Maybe it’s just a life time of September changes that has ingrained in me a need to be prepared. Every year for the past 17 (yes, that’s every year of my adult life, which now, by the way, out-numbers the years I spent in school, but let’s not digress) life has tossed me some kind of change. Little things like a new home, a marriage, or a new job get lobbed in my direction. Then some more new homes, a few more new jobs, and a new country thrown in every couple of years just for fun. Small things that require preparation – preparation that I feel the need to do in September, after the fun of summer.

This year…no news, no changes. No need to organize, no need to prepare.

All the same, the September New Year inertia is strong so in the past couple of weeks I’ve organized my yarn stash, and even managed to finish a couple projects. I tidied my studio, organized my schedule, our finances, legal documentation, AND the bathroom shelves (don’t laugh, that was a big project).

And these are almost finished and ready for the now very organized sock drawer.